The advent of formation of plastic materials such as plastic sheets, films and nonwoven webs by extrusion processes such as, for example, slot film extrusion, blown bubble film extrusion, meltblowing of nonwoven webs and spinbonding of nonwoven webs allowed a wide variety of products to be manufactured so inexpensively that they could be viewed as disposable after only one or a few uses.
One product area in which those in the art have been attempting to manufacture goods in an inexpensive manner is the bedding area and, in particular, mattress pads. Inexpensive mattress pads have the advantage in commercial applications such as hospitals of being discarded after only one or a few uses. The savings in laundry costs offsetting a part, if not all, of the cost of the pad. Unfortunately, a problem which exists in most mattress pads and, in particular, the more inexpensively made mattress pads is that the pad tends to bunch up on the surface of the mattress or, in some instances, pull off of one or more of the corners of the mattress, in response to movement (tossing and turning) on the part of an individual. In response to this problem mattress pads have been provided with elastic corner straps to aid in retention of the mattress pad about the corners of the mattress. However, prior to the present invention, no totally satisfactory solution to the "bunching up" problem existed.
Another problem which has been present in this area is that when the mattress pad has been made of a composite material including a number of layers of different materials joined together, the layers, when joined together by an adhesive or by other conventional thermal bonding configurations, have tended to separate at the points of joining if the mattress pad was washed. This separation resulted from the adhesive or other joining mechanism degrading at the temperature present in commercial washing operations. Yet another problem associated with the prior mattress pads is that, if these pads include multiple layers joined by stitching, the stitching sometimes comes apart and allows the quilting material to move freely between the sandwiching layers.
One other area in which those of skill in the art have been attempting to manufacture goods in an inexpensive manner is the food service area and, in particular, the area of tablecloths or table pads. Inexpensive tablecloths or pads have the advantage of being discardable after only one or a few uses. The savings in laundry costs offsetting a part, if not all, of the cost of the tablecloth or pad. Unfortunately, a problem which exists in most tablecloths or pads and, in particular, the more inexpensively made tablecloths or pads is that the cloth tends to slide easily off of the table which it is covering.
The elastic mattress pads and elastic table pads made in accordance with the present invention may also be utilized where re-use is desired. In such situations a desirable feature of the elastic pads is that, after laundering, these pads, as a result of their elasticity have the ability to be stretched about a mattress or table pad even though some shrinkage may have occurred as a result of the laundering process. Thus the elastic pads of the present invention are superior to those of the prior art in that they can be easily and readily applied to, for example, a mattress or table top after the occurrence of shrinkage.
Some of the other problems in this area are the provision of a bulky material which is resilient and flexible while still having a pleasing feel. Other characteristics which are desirable are the ability to withstand unraveling during cutting and sewing operations, good puncture resistance, wet strength and a low linting factor.